Drug control neglected, fake medicines flooding State

GUWAHATI, JAN 2017:

Collection of medicine samples from markets for testing by the Drugs Control Cell under Health department has been greatly hampered because of fund shortage. In the State budget, no extra fund has been earmarked in the current fiscal for collection of medicine samples from markets.

Lack of adequate collection of medicine samples by drug inspectors for testing has left the coast clear for sub-standard drug makers in selling their spurious products easily. This in turn is posing a great risk to people suffering from illnesses or injuries. Fake drug manufacturers based in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh and Orissa have created a large market for their products in the Northeastern region.

The problem has become serious in rural areas of the region where 'quacks' routinely prescribe counterfeit medicines.

Another problem affecting drug testing in the State is that the Drugs Control Cell does not have its own laboratory for conducting tests. The State Drugs Testing Laboratory at Six Mile in the city was upgraded into a regional laboratory named Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory almost ten years ago.

Presently, the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory caters to the eight NE States including Sikkim, and is overburdened with work. "The workload on the lab is too much. Sometimes, we get our reports as late as 3 to 4 months due to which we can't take prompt action," said a source in the Drugs Control Cell, adding, "though we haven't come across too many cases of adulterated or spurious drugs, but there are instances of drugs of substandard quality being sold in the market."

Another problem which dogs medicine sample collection from pharmaceutical units and chemist shops - is the shortage of official vehicles. Most of the time, adulterated or spurious medicines are found in rural areas, but the drug inspectors are hard put to visit such places due to non-availability of official vehicles.

The Drug Control Cell has sent a proposal to the State government seeking one inspector in each subdivision, a legal cell, a separate laboratory and other working facilities.

Union Health minister JP Nadda recently laid the foundation of the Regional Drugs Testing Laboratory at Six Mile which, once complete, would be the biggest such laboratory in the country. Nadda also claimed that Assam is the first State to have a drug testing laboratory of this strength. The laboratory would go a long way in strengthening the health sector and healthcare system in Assam and the Northeastern region, he had added.

Assam is meanwhile also facing a severe shortage of drug inspectors, who ensure that medicines made and sold in the State are safe for consumption. Out of total 21 sanctioned posts of drug inspectors in Assam, as many as 12 posts are lying vacant presently.

While official sources claim to have no information about cross-border smuggling of spurious medicines into the State or out of it, several media reports have stated that medicine mafias also export their products to Myanmar and Bangladesh via the North-east.

Large quantities of fake drugs manufactured in China's Yunan province are also said to be smuggled into the North-east, media reports have stated. The Sentinel